Ashland University President Jon Peede joined Student Senate at its March 18 meeting.  

He discussed several important on-campus topics but spent a significant portion addressing his desire as president to improve the overall sense of community on campus. 

“It’s not about [staying] on campus because you’re forced to. In a perfect world, it will be ‘Come on, why didn’t you build more?’ [Seniors will go off campus] because they can’t get through the lottery system,” said Peede, highlighting his goal of making dorm living the ideal for students rather than off-campus apartments. 

He mentioned the limited areas on campus for parking and brought up the hypothetical scenario of turning the green area between Dwight Schar College of Education and the Center for the Arts into a larger parking lot. 

Dr. Larry Bunce visited the Senate to give a presentation on the student satisfaction survey sent to AU students in Fall 2024.  

“Research consistently shows that satisfied students are successful students,” said Bunce, touching on the importance of the survey. 

One takeaway is the 23% response rate to the survey, slightly higher than the 20% national average.  Also, higher percentages of students seem more satisfied than the average university in many areas. These include academic excellence, academic advising and student support. 

One area Ashland has scored lower than the national average is in students’ comfort with the campus living conditions, which is considered in improving the overall student experience. 

Dan McDonald, chair of the Department of Art + Design at AU, also visited Senate to discuss a potential job opportunity for students. 

“This is being a teaching aid…You function as an imbedded coach…It’s the first eight weeks of the fall semester, and you also get paid per hour a week that you sit in as an office hour in the WCC [Writing and Communication Center],” said McDonald, explaining the job. 

Essentially, the job entails being a coach for freshman to help them through their first eight weeks of college. 

Resolution 022425-01, which seeks to extend library hours, was brought by Chair of Student Affairs Maksym Polianski. The resolution passed the Senate unanimously.  

Student Senate meets every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. in the ABCD Conference Room in the AU Hawkins-Conard Student Center on campus. For more information, visit its Instagram page @austudentsenate  for updates.